This invention relates to a professional style batting glove. More specifically, this invention relates to a batting glove with a locking strap to simultaneously secure the glove to the user's wrist and to stretch the palm material of the glove across the user's palm.
The design and construction of professional style batting gloves has become increasing sophisticated as professional and serious amateur athletes expect both comfort and a precision fit in their batting gloves. Batting gloves have evolved as a combination of thin, soft leather panels for its tactile qualities with fabric sections of various elastic properties for improved fit. Such gloves characteristically include an open cuff of stretchable material which is open in either of the regions below the thumb stall, or the back of the glove, or the side of the hand. A locking strap of uniform wide is typically secured to one edge of the open cuff and includes a strip of hook and latch material such as VELCRO. A corresponding strip of hook and latch material is secured to the back of the cuff so that the locking strip can tightly encircle the user's wrist.
Comparatively little attention has been given to the tensioning of the leather palm material of conventional batting gloves except to rely on the elasticity of the material across the back of the glove or at the sides of the palm section in order to stretch material across the user's palm. Such solutions have not proven entirely satisfactory and can still result in bunching or puckering of the palm leather when the user grasps a baseball bat.
Accordingly, the need remains in the design and construction of batting gloves for improvements to tension the leather palmar material across the user's hand when a locking strip is deployed to secure the glove around the user's wrist. A primary goal of this invention is to meet this need and to provide such improvements.